Embraer plane crash: What we know so far

Here is what we know so far about the plane crash that Russian aviation authorities say killed Prigozhin and nine others:

  • The plane was en route from Moscow to St Petersburg and was carrying seven passengers and three crew members.

  • The Russian Aviation Authority has confirmed that Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner chief commander Dmitry Utkin were on board the crashed Embraer plane.

  • All 10 people onboard the plane died, according to Russia’s ministry for emergency situation, Reuters reports.

  • The other five passengers have been identified as: Sergey Propustin, Evgeniy Makaryan, Aleksandr Totmin, Valeriy Chekalov, Dmitriy Utkin, Nikolay Matuseev and Prigozhin.

  • The crew have been identified as: Commander Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.

  • The plane went down almost 300km (186 miles) north of Moscow, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

  • Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened up an investigation into the crash on charges of air safety rule violation.

  • The crash comes two months after Prigozhin’s failed mutiny against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s authority.

  • US president Joe Biden has been informed of the crash and said that he was “not surprised” at the news of Prigozhin’s death.

Key events

We’re closing this live blog now, and will be kicking off our live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war and the reported death of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in a few hours’ time. In the meantime, you can read our main story on the crash here:

Summary

Here is what we know about the jet that was reportedly carrying Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, and crashed, killing all of its passengers:

  • The Russian Aviation Authority has confirmed that Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner chief commander Dmitry Utkin were on board an Embraer plane that crashed en route from Moscow to St Petersburg and was carrying seven passengers and three crew members. The crash comes two months after Prigozhin’s failed mutiny against Russian president Vladimir Putin’s authority.

  • All 10 people onboard the plane died, according to Russia’s ministry for emergency situation, Reuters reports.

  • The other five passengers have been identified as: Sergey Propustin, Evgeniy Makaryan, Aleksandr Totmin, Valeriy Chekalov, Dmitriy Utkin, Nikolay Matuseev and Prigozhin.

  • The crew have been identified as: Commander Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.

  • The plane went down almost 300km (186 miles) north of Moscow, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

  • Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened up an investigation into the crash on charges of air safety rule violation.

  • US president Joe Biden has been informed of the crash and said that he was “not surprised” at the news of Prigozhin’s death.

  • A building housing Wagner’s offices in St Petersburg lit up its windows after dark in such a way as to display a giant cross in a mark of respect and mourning. Flowers were left and candles lit near the offices early on Thursday.

  • The jet showed no sign of problem until a precipitous drop in its final 30 seconds, according to flight-tracking data.

  • The Embraer executive jet model that crashed has only ever recorded one accident in over 20 years of service, and that was due to mistakes by the crew rather than mechanical failure, according to website International Aviation HQ. Russia’s TASS news agency said the plane was a Brazilian Embraer jet.

  • Embraer declined to comment on Wednesday, saying only that “Embraer has complied with international sanctions imposed on Russia.” Sanctions block western planemakers from providing parts or support for planes operated in Russia.

Wagner building lit up like a cross

Reuters reports that a building housing Wagner’s offices in St Petersburg lit up its windows after dark in such a way as to display a giant cross in a mark of respect and mourning.

Flowers were left and candles lit near the offices early on Thursday:

More on the plane’s last moments, via Reuters:

Online flight tracker Flightradar24 last recorded the position of the aircraft at 3:11 p.m. GMT, before the crash. Jamming or interference in the area probably slowed the collection of further location data.

Other data continued for nine minutes. Flightradar24 said the jet went thorough a series of ascents and descents of a few thousand feet each over 30 seconds before its final, disastrous plunge. Flightradar24 received its final data on the jet at 3.20pm.

Plane appeared fine on radar until last 30 seconds – Reuters

Helen Sullivan back with you now. Reuters reports that the jet believed to be carrying Prigozhin to his death on Wednesday showed no sign of problem until a precipitous drop in its final 30 seconds, according to flight-tracking data.

The plane was traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region, Russia’s emergency situations ministry said.

At 3.19pm GMT, the aircraft made a “sudden downward vertical,” said Ian Petchenik of Flightradar24. Within about 30 seconds, the aircraft had plummeted more than 8,000 feet from its cruising altitude of 28,000 feet.

“Whatever happened, happened quickly,” Petchenik said.

“They may have been wrestling (with the aircraft) after whatever happened,” Petchenik said. But prior to its dramatic drop, there was “no indication that there was anything wrong with this aircraft.”

Video showed the plane descending rapidly with its nose pointing almost straight downward and a plume of smoke or vapour behind it.

More reaction, this time from Bill Browder, the American-born financier who famously took on Putin after corrupt Russian officials effectively hijacked his hedge fund to perpetrate a massive tax fraud.

More pictures have also come through from the scene of the crash:

The wires have sent a couple of pictures through from outside the former PMC Wagner Centre in St Petersburg, where people have been placing flowers and lighting candles.

And some from British lawmaker Alicia Kearns, chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee:

Some reaction from Poland, where foreign minister Zbigniew Rau told state news channel TVP Info:

We would have great trouble naming anyone who would intuitively think this was a coincidence. It so happens that political opponents whom Vladimir Putin considers a threat to his power do not die naturally.”

As many have pointed out, Prigozhin would not be the first enemy of Vladimir Putin to meet an untimely death. Reuters has put together this rundown of mysterious deaths and apparent attacks on critics of the Russian president:

ALEXEI NAVALNY: Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, was flown to Germany in August 2020 for medical treatment after being poisoned in Siberia with what western experts concluded was the military nerve agent novichok. Russia has denied any involvement. Navalny earned admiration around the world for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021. He was immediately arrested on arrival.

SERGEI SKRIPAL: A former Russian double agent who passed secrets to British intelligence, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre in the English cathedral city of Salisbury in March 2018.
They were taken to hospital in critical condition, and British officials said they had been poisoned with novichok, a group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet military in the 1970s and 1980s. Both survived.

VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA: A Russian opposition activist, Vladimir Kara-Murza said he believes attempts were made to poison him in 2015 and 2017. A German laboratory later found elevated levels of mercury, copper, manganese and zinc in him, according to medical reports seen by Reuters. Moscow denied involvement.

ALEXANDER LITVINENKO: Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-KGB agent and outspoken critic of Putin, died in 2006 aged 43 after drinking green tea laced with polonium-210, a rare and potent radioactive isotope, at London’s Millennium Hotel, British officials have said. Putin probably approved the killing, a British inquiry concluded in 2016. The Kremlin has denied involvement.

ALEXANDER PEREPILICHNY: The 44-year-old Russian was found dead near his luxury home on an exclusive gated estate outside London after he had been out jogging in November 2012. Alexander Perepilichny sought refuge in Britain in 2009 after helping a Swiss investigation into a Russian money-laundering scheme. His sudden death raised suggestions he might have been murdered. Russia denied involvement.

VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO: Viktor Yushchenko, then a Ukrainian opposition leader, was poisoned during the campaign for the 2004 presidential election in which he ran on a pro-western ticket against the pro-Moscow prime minister Viktor Yanukovich.
He said he was poisoned while having dinner outside Kyiv with officials from the Ukrainian security services. Russia denied any involvement. His body was found to contain 1,000 times more dioxin than is normally present. His face and body were disfigured by the poisoning, and he had dozens of operations in the aftermath.

ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA: A journalist who reported on human rights abuses, she was shot dead outside her flat in Moscow on 7 October 2006, after returning home from the supermarket.